MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY AT WORKPLACE

Abstract: Background: Cultural diversity within a workplace is increasingly becoming important as more organisations are embracing it within the global workforce. Some of its effect have been linked to performance outcomes according to past reviews and as a result, there are more suggestions on the need to study how various organisations manage their cultural diversity. Universities as an organisation has also blended in the internationalisation practice through human resources and diverse employees to form a part of the economic globalisation. Purpose: The purpose if this paper is to examine how cultural diversity is managed in a Swedish university, Jönköping International Business School (JIBS). Also, further investigation is on the employee’s perception of how the practices and policies of cultural diversity is being delivered by the management at the university. Method: An exploratory research is conducted for this paper and the empirical findings is gathered through a qualitative research. The primary research is retrieved by semi-constructed interviews. The human resource department and teachers from different backgrounds and countries were interviewed to find out how the teachers perception of cultural diversity management at their workplace based on how the practices and policies were delivered to them. Findings: Based on the interviews it was found that the cultural diversity management as a topic is well understood by both the management and the employees. However, the study revealed that the employees do not perceive it in the same manner it was being delivered to them by the management. The issues and practices connected to managing cultural diversity is not entirely provided by the management within the work environment. It essential that the management provide for more effectively communicated structure